Battlefield 3 has no in-game browser server on PC

It has been revealed that Battlefield 3 is getting an in-game server browser, something that is usually obligatory with PC games. Except ... the feature is exclusive to consoles. The PC version has to use the Battlelog home page, with no in-game browsing allowed.

Senior gameplay designer Alan Kertz has gone so far as to say that there won't be an in-game menu at all on PC, with everything done through a Web browser. He says that it acts as the in-game menu and that you can jump straight from the service into a game with no inconvenience.

The problem people have with this arrangement is that you won't be able to look for new servers while playing an existing game. You'll have to quit out, go to your browser, pick a new server on the Battlelog page, and re-enter. As you might expect, this is getting a fair bit of criticism from fans.

While it's not the end of the world, it does seem like an overly complicated, roundabout way of doing things. A simple in-game browser would be so much more convenient. Still, EA hasn't really been about consumer convenience lately, not when there are proprietary services to force down our throats.